“The MIT Mobility Initiative (MMI) is a distinctive cross-Institute program that aims to bring together the key stakeholders to foster forward the pace of innovation while offering an objective strategic direction that will guide a more comprehensive understanding of mobility challenges and help shape an environment for mobility that is durable, safe and clean. It is also accessible.
“The mobility system is undergoing profound transformation with new technologies — autonomy, electrification, and AI — colliding with new and evolving priorities and objectives including decarbonization, public health, and social justice,” states Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of the MIT School of Engineering and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The time frame for these changes, decarbonization in particular, is short in a system with massive amounts of fixed, long-life assets and entrenched behaviors and cultures.”
The MMI is a partnership with two schools, the School of Engineering and the School of Architecture and Planning is designed as an infrastructure to connect all transportation and mobility activities at MIT, creating an integrated strategy for the Institute’s activities in research and education, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement in relation the transportation system.
“As cities grapple with the challenges of congestion, pollution, and vehicle-related fatalities, new mobility systems offer the possibility for dramatic urban transformation,” says Hashim Sarkis, dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. “Our aim is to provide a platform for many stakeholders to jointly build a better mobility future in the world’s cities.”
The five industry associate MMI members MMI represent the various sectors that work and innovate concerning mobility:
- Ferrovial is an eco-friendly infrastructure and mobility company.
- Hyundai Motor Group is a global company that provides sustainable and intelligent mobility solutions.
- Intel is an innovator in technology that drives forward with innovation, helping to make a difference and enriching people’s lives.
- Liberty Mutual Insurance is a global property and casualty insurance company that provides insurance against the unforeseeable in a world that is becoming increasingly mobile and
- Toyota is an international company dedicated to developing sustainable, future-proof mobility.
“Our collaboration with the MIT Mobility Initiative aligns with our strategic focus on open innovation and learning outside the enterprise,” says Youngcho Chi, president and chief innovation officer of Hyundai.
Dimitris Bountolos, CIO for Ferrovial and Ferrovial, says, “The MMI is the perfect meeting point to share Ferrovial knowledge, learning together with mobility experts, technologists, and OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] on how to build a sustainable future of mobility where infrastructures will be key.”
Ann Stanberry, chief strategy officer at Liberty Mutual, says, “The way people move is constantly evolving, and our engagement with the MIT Mobility Initiative and its industry members ensures that we are on the forefront of this change — working together to help people get where they need to be safely and with peace of mind.”
The research program of the Mobility Initiative revolves around addressing the most challenging cross-disciplinary, interconnected questions that arise from the present-day challenges to mobility. The initial research focuses on connected and autonomous mobility and charging infrastructure. MIT researchers are examining ways to measure and assess the risk associated with autonomous vehicles, how to secure the security of the infrastructure that supports their mobility, and how to apply new data-driven methods to determine the flaws in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
“Strengthening MIT’s involvement with the global mobility community is a top priority for the initiative. It is crucial to create an organization that can impact the world,” says Jinhua Zhao, the Edward and Joyce Linde Associate Professor of City and Transportation Planning and the founder and director of the faculty at the MIT Mobility Initiative. Zhao hosts the MIT Mobility Forum, highlighting the groundbreaking research conducted across the disciplines at MIT. It was established in the year 2020. the forum’s weekly meetings now reach more than 10,000 people across the globe.
“The future of transportation is being developed within an extremely dynamic and complex environment of established transportation firms, Big Tech firms, and a flurry of new startups. The government is also actively changing the regulatory and legal frameworks that govern the future of mobility, ” states John Moavenzadeh, the executive director of the MIT Mobility Initiative. Moavenzadeh was the architect of MMI’s MMI Mobility Vision Day in November of last year, which brought together more than 130 top leaders with over 40 business executives in the C-suite to discuss the various aspects that make up the system of mobility.
